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flag  History of Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Journey back in time to Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

(Valley Falls) (Ashton) (Cumberland Hill)

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Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Nine Men's Misery monument in Cumberland is the oldest known monument to veterans in the United States. It was erected in memory of the colonists killed in Pierce's Fight during King Phillips War in 1676.

Cumberlandite is the official state rock. It is dark brown or black with white markings and found on both sides of Narragansett Bay but not north of Cumberland.

50states.com

There is MUCH more to discover about Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA. Read on!
  • News 1777 - First Nail
    The first cut nail in the world was made in 1777 by Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumberland, R.I.
    St Joseph Herald
    Saint Joseph, Michigan
    June 19, 1869

  • News 1809 - Earth Trembling
    May 16.
    In Cumberland, R.I., near Attleborough, an extraordinary trembling of earth has been repeatedly noticed of late; sometimes so hard as to break crockery ware. Several persons have removed. It appears to be local.

    The Maryland Gazette
    Annapolis, Maryland
    May 24, 1809

  • 1819 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a post township, is situated in the northeast corner of the State, about eight miles northeast from Providence; bounded east on Attleborough and Wrentham in Massachusetts, north on Wrentham, Bellingham & Mendon, in Massachusetts, southwesterly on Pawtucket river, which separates it from ...Read MORE...


  • 1839 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, Rhode Island
    Providence county. The manufacture of cotton and boat building is extensively pursued in this town. Pawtucket, Mill and Peter's rivers, and Abbot's run, afford the town a good hydraulic power. There is some good land in Cumberland, producing a variety of articles for...Read MORE...


  • News 1842 - COPPER MINE IN RHODE ISLAND
    A rich Copper Mine has been opened at Cumberland, R. I. - Within the last week fifteen tons of ore have been shipped for Boston, from the mine, commenced this season, and worked by four men only. The ore was sent to Liverpool to be sold at the monthly mart of ore at Swansea. There is not a single...Read MORE...


  • News 1853 - AWFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT. FOURTEEN LIVES LOST. THIRTY OR FORTY SERIOUSLY INJURED.
    Disagreeable necessity obliges us to shock the sensibilities of our readers, by the recital of another horrible calamity from a collision of Railway trains.

    At 8 o'clock, yesterday morning, a collision occurred on the Providence and Worcester Railroad, which caused the death of fourteen persons, ...Read MORE...


  • 1854 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a township of Providence co., Rhode Island, 10 miles N. of Providence, on the Providence and Worcester railroad, contains 4 banks. Population, 661.
    A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States: Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition, Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy ... Thomas Baldwin (of Philadelphia.) Joseph Thomas January 1, 1854 Philadelphia : Lippincott, Grambo & Company 1854.

  • 1859
    CUMBERLAND, a township of Providence co., in the state of Rhode Island, 8 m. N of Providence. It is to some extent hilly, but is in some parts fertile and well-cultivated. Abbott's Mill, and Peter's rivers, by which it is intersected, afford good water-power. Boat-building and the manufacture of...Read MORE...


  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Citizens Bank note
    Artifact
  • 1869 - In the towns of Cumberland, Smithfield, Blackstone, and Bellingham, R. I.,
    there are seventeen cotton and eight woolen mills, which employ 5,550 hands, run 4,480 looms, and annually use 15,300,000 pounds of cotton. Foundations are now being laid to run 150,000 spindles.
    St Joseph Herald
    Saint Joseph, Michigan
    November 20, 1869

  • News 1877 - Diamond Hill Quarry Company
    The Woonsocket Patriot says that the Diamond Hill Quarry Company of Cumberland, have made a contract with the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company to furnish all the stone for the abutments and piers of that bridge. The contract is a large one, and it will probably require two years to complete it. In order ...Read MORE...


  • 1878 - Ashton
    Ashton.
    Simon Whipple, George Olney, Samuel Clarke, and others purchased this privilege, and built a factory in the year 1810, and spun cotton. Mr. Olney purchased his partners' shares at various times. In 1825, he owned the entire privilege. The management of these men, gave the place the name ...Read MORE...


  • 1878 - Valley Falls
    Valley Falls. In 1870, Messrs. Grey & Fish leased rooms from the Valley Falls Company, and commenced the manufacture of weaver's reeds and harness. From Jan. 1, 1873, to Jan. 1, 1877, Mr. Myron Fish conducted the business alone, after which he admitted Mr. John A. Carter as partner. In December, ...Read MORE...


  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Valley Falls Depot, 1883
    Postcard
  • News 1885 - A VILLAGE TERRORIZED
    WEST WRENTHAM, Mass., Aug. 1 . - The village of Diamond Hill in Cumberland, just over the line in Rhode Island, is terrorized by a gang of laborers employed on the Pawtucket Water Reservoir building at that place. Citizens do not dare to go out after dark without being armed. Men have been knocked...Read MORE...


  • News 1890 - FISHING FOR TURTLES. When the Shell-Backed Monster Bites Run Like a Steer.
    Terrapin or turtle farms are run in the South and on the Pacific coast, but the business has only been tried in New England as an experiment. As experiments, many of these have been failures, so far as a money making basis is concerned, and many are now kept up for the pleasure of the owner, or by...Read MORE...


  • 1895 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a township of Providence co, R.I., the northeasternmost township in the state. It contains and many interesting minerals, Pop. 8090.
    Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

  • News 1899 - SERVANT GIRL VANISHES. Apparently Wore Nothing but a Nightrobe and a Picture Hat.
    (Special to the World.)
    PROVIDENCE, R.I., Nov. 5. - Cumberland Hill has a mystery which the town officers and others are trying to unravel. Walter Grant, who has a fine home at Diamond Hill, went to Boston Thursday, and at an intelligence office hired a domestic, who gave her name as Mary...Read MORE...


  • News 1900 - TRAPPISTS ARE TO MOVE. Monastery in Nova Scotia to Be Removed to Cumberland in Rhode Island.
    St. John, N. B., April 28. - The trappist monastery at Tracadie, N. S., is soon to be removed to a far near Cumberland, R. I., and the farm at Tracadie abandoned. It was established in 1814. It was founded by members after the house in France was broken up by the Emperor, Napoleon. There are...Read MORE...


  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Church and School at Chapel Four Corners, Cumberland, R.I.
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Diamond Hill Train Station
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Cumberland High School, Valley Falls, R.I.
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Cumberland Mills Depot, 1907
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Diamond Hill Reservoir Gate House
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Broad Street Bridge
    Postcard
  • 1916
    Cumberland, a township (town) of Providence co., R.I., the northeasternmost town in the state. It manufactures cotton, horseshoes, etc., and contains coal and many interesting minerals. Pop. in 1900, 8925.
    Lippincotts New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns, Resorts, Islands, Rivers, Mountains, Seas, Lakes, Etc., in Every Portion of the Globe, Part 1 Angelo Heilprin Louis Heilprin - January 1, 1916 J.B. Lippincott - Publisher

  • News 1924 - GAS EXPLOSION KILLS FIFTEEN
    Man Strikes Match in Gas-Filled Room of Tenement House; Family Dies

    (By Tribune's Special Leased Wire)
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Jan. 28 - Fifteen persons met death in a terrific gas explosion that early to-day demolished a tenement house owned by the Manville Mills. An entire family - mother, father...Read MORE...


  • 1928 - Nine Men's Misery monument in Cumberland was erected in memory of the colonists killed in Pierce's Fight during King Phillips War in 1676.
    The monument was erected in 1928, by monks living in a nearby monastery.
    bucklinsociety.net/ bucklin-family-history/ william-bucklin/ nine-mens-misery/

  • News 1934 - Communist Plot Rumored To Dynamite Water Supply
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Sept. 14. - (UP) - Unconfirmed rumors of a communist plot to dynamite Pawtucket's water supply spread today and police guards were assigned to the reservoir at Diamond Hill in this town.

    Neither state nor local police would admit having received tips indicating such a plot,...Read MORE...


  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, Mt. St. Rita, Cumberland, Rhode Island
    Postcard
  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    Lonsdale Company
    Postcard
  • 1949 - Testimony of Water Shortage in New England
    ...The old stone walls of farmlands flooded 62 years ago are visible in the top picture [illegible] of the Diamond Hill reservoir, Cumberland R.I., which also serves to show a typical example of the acute water shortage throughout the New England area...
    Fitchburg Sentinel
    Fitchburg, Massachusetts
    November 15, 1949

  • News 1950 - Monastery in Rhode Island Is Destroyed
    Cumberland Hill, R. I. (UP) - Fire early today destroyed the hilltop Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of the Valley, built by the patient hands of Trappist monks.

    The blaze apparently broke out in the infirmary of the massive granite structure, driving 110 monks and 20 guests from the four...Read MORE...


  • News 1955 - Industrial Blaze Ends 2,000 Jobs in Rhode Island
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Sept. 13 - (INS) - Two thousand persons were left jobless today by a $5 million fire which destroyed five buildings of the Manville Mills on the banks of the Blackstone River.

    Firefighter James Bannon of Pawtucket was hospitalized for a fractured leg suffered when he fell while ...Read MORE...


  • Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
    1955 - Flames Destroy Mill
    Alton Evening Telegraph
    Alton, Illinois
    September 13, 1955
  • News 1967 - It Was Good Ski Season For New England Resorts
    ...Rhode Island ski resorts survived abnormal warm weather in January to record a good season, with one exception. The January snow lack was balanced by good falls in other months plus many cold nights for the making of machine snow.

    Three of the four resort owners in Rhode Island listed 30...Read MORE...


  • News 1976 - Blast Destroys Aerosol Plant
    CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) - "When I got to the window, there was no wall left. It just blew me right through," said Norman Brule.

    Brule was one of at least 27 persons working in the Peterson-Puritan Aerosol spray plant when an explosion ripped through the building Saturday, tossing chunks of cement...Read MORE...


  • News 1976 - Century-old twins
    CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) - Emmanuel and Samuel Lussier's relatives are planning a centennial celebration of their own next year when the twin brothers reach a landmark birthday.

    Emmanuel and Samuel were born Aug. 11, 1877. They are believed to be the oldest male twins in New England.
    The Portsmouth Herald
    Portsmouth, New Hampshire
    November 11, 1976



Old Photos, Pictures, Advertisements and Postcards from Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA


Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Artifact
Pinterest
Citizens Bank note

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Valley Falls Depot, 1883

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Church and School at Chapel Four Corners, Cumberland, R.I.

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Diamond Hill Train Station

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Cumberland High School, Valley Falls, R.I.

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Cumberland Mills Depot, 1907

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Diamond Hill Reservoir Gate House

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Broad Street Bridge

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Lonsdale Company

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Postcard
Pinterest
Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, Mt. St. Rita, Cumberland, Rhode Island

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA
Pinterest
1955 - Flames Destroy Mill
Alton Evening Telegraph
Alton, Illinois
September 13, 1955

History, News and Stories of Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA

Add informationAdd History/News/Story
  • News  1777 - First Nail
    The first cut nail in the world was made in 1777 by Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumberland, R.I.
    St Joseph Herald
    Saint Joseph, Michigan
    June 19, 1869
  • News  1809 - Earth Trembling
    May 16.
    In Cumberland, R.I., near Attleborough, an extraordinary trembling of earth has been repeatedly noticed of late; sometimes so hard as to break crockery ware. Several persons have removed. It appears to be local.

    The Maryland Gazette
    Annapolis, Maryland
    May 24, 1809
  • 1819 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a post township, is situated in the northeast corner of the State, about eight miles northeast from Providence; bounded east on Attleborough and Wrentham in Massachusetts, north on Wrentham, Bellingham & Mendon, in Massachusetts, southwesterly on Pawtucket river, which separates it from ... Read MORE...

  • 1839 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, Rhode Island
    Providence county. The manufacture of cotton and boat building is extensively pursued in this town. Pawtucket, Mill and Peter's rivers, and Abbot's run, afford the town a good hydraulic power. There is some good land in Cumberland, producing a variety of articles for... Read MORE...

  • News  1842 - COPPER MINE IN RHODE ISLAND
    A rich Copper Mine has been opened at Cumberland, R. I. - Within the last week fifteen tons of ore have been shipped for Boston, from the mine, commenced this season, and worked by four men only. The ore was sent to Liverpool to be sold at the monthly mart of ore at Swansea. There is not a single... Read MORE...

  • News  1853 - AWFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT. FOURTEEN LIVES LOST. THIRTY OR FORTY SERIOUSLY INJURED.
    Disagreeable necessity obliges us to shock the sensibilities of our readers, by the recital of another horrible calamity from a collision of Railway trains.

    At 8 o'clock, yesterday morning, a collision occurred on the Providence and Worcester Railroad, which caused the death of fourteen persons, ... Read MORE...

  • 1854 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a township of Providence co., Rhode Island, 10 miles N. of Providence, on the Providence and Worcester railroad, contains 4 banks. Population, 661.
    A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States: Giving a Full and Comprehensive Review of the Present Condition, Industry, and Resources of the American Confederacy ... Thomas Baldwin (of Philadelphia.) Joseph Thomas January 1, 1854 Philadelphia : Lippincott, Grambo & Company 1854.
  • 1859
    CUMBERLAND, a township of Providence co., in the state of Rhode Island, 8 m. N of Providence. It is to some extent hilly, but is in some parts fertile and well-cultivated. Abbott's Mill, and Peter's rivers, by which it is intersected, afford good water-power. Boat-building and the manufacture of... Read MORE...

  • 1869 - In the towns of Cumberland, Smithfield, Blackstone, and Bellingham, R. I.,
    there are seventeen cotton and eight woolen mills, which employ 5,550 hands, run 4,480 looms, and annually use 15,300,000 pounds of cotton. Foundations are now being laid to run 150,000 spindles.
    St Joseph Herald
    Saint Joseph, Michigan
    November 20, 1869
  • News  1877 - Diamond Hill Quarry Company
    The Woonsocket Patriot says that the Diamond Hill Quarry Company of Cumberland, have made a contract with the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company to furnish all the stone for the abutments and piers of that bridge. The contract is a large one, and it will probably require two years to complete it. In order ... Read MORE...

  • 1878 - Ashton
    Ashton.
    Simon Whipple, George Olney, Samuel Clarke, and others purchased this privilege, and built a factory in the year 1810, and spun cotton. Mr. Olney purchased his partners' shares at various times. In 1825, he owned the entire privilege. The management of these men, gave the place the name ... Read MORE...

  • 1878 - Valley Falls
    Valley Falls. In 1870, Messrs. Grey & Fish leased rooms from the Valley Falls Company, and commenced the manufacture of weaver's reeds and harness. From Jan. 1, 1873, to Jan. 1, 1877, Mr. Myron Fish conducted the business alone, after which he admitted Mr. John A. Carter as partner. In December, ... Read MORE...

  • News  1885 - A VILLAGE TERRORIZED
    WEST WRENTHAM, Mass., Aug. 1 . - The village of Diamond Hill in Cumberland, just over the line in Rhode Island, is terrorized by a gang of laborers employed on the Pawtucket Water Reservoir building at that place. Citizens do not dare to go out after dark without being armed. Men have been knocked... Read MORE...

  • News  1890 - FISHING FOR TURTLES. When the Shell-Backed Monster Bites Run Like a Steer.
    Terrapin or turtle farms are run in the South and on the Pacific coast, but the business has only been tried in New England as an experiment. As experiments, many of these have been failures, so far as a money making basis is concerned, and many are now kept up for the pleasure of the owner, or by... Read MORE...

  • 1895 - Cumberland
    Cumberland, a township of Providence co, R.I., the northeasternmost township in the state. It contains and many interesting minerals, Pop. 8090.
    Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott
  • News  1899 - SERVANT GIRL VANISHES. Apparently Wore Nothing but a Nightrobe and a Picture Hat.
    (Special to the World.)
    PROVIDENCE, R.I., Nov. 5. - Cumberland Hill has a mystery which the town officers and others are trying to unravel. Walter Grant, who has a fine home at Diamond Hill, went to Boston Thursday, and at an intelligence office hired a domestic, who gave her name as Mary... Read MORE...

  • News  1900 - TRAPPISTS ARE TO MOVE. Monastery in Nova Scotia to Be Removed to Cumberland in Rhode Island.
    St. John, N. B., April 28. - The trappist monastery at Tracadie, N. S., is soon to be removed to a far near Cumberland, R. I., and the farm at Tracadie abandoned. It was established in 1814. It was founded by members after the house in France was broken up by the Emperor, Napoleon. There are... Read MORE...

  • 1916
    Cumberland, a township (town) of Providence co., R.I., the northeasternmost town in the state. It manufactures cotton, horseshoes, etc., and contains coal and many interesting minerals. Pop. in 1900, 8925.
    Lippincotts New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns, Resorts, Islands, Rivers, Mountains, Seas, Lakes, Etc., in Every Portion of the Globe, Part 1 Angelo Heilprin Louis Heilprin - January 1, 1916 J.B. Lippincott - Publisher
  • News  1924 - GAS EXPLOSION KILLS FIFTEEN
    Man Strikes Match in Gas-Filled Room of Tenement House; Family Dies

    (By Tribune's Special Leased Wire)
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Jan. 28 - Fifteen persons met death in a terrific gas explosion that early to-day demolished a tenement house owned by the Manville Mills. An entire family - mother, father... Read MORE...

  • 1928 - Nine Men's Misery monument in Cumberland was erected in memory of the colonists killed in Pierce's Fight during King Phillips War in 1676.
    The monument was erected in 1928, by monks living in a nearby monastery.
    bucklinsociety.net/ bucklin-family-history/ william-bucklin/ nine-mens-misery/
  • News  1934 - Communist Plot Rumored To Dynamite Water Supply
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Sept. 14. - (UP) - Unconfirmed rumors of a communist plot to dynamite Pawtucket's water supply spread today and police guards were assigned to the reservoir at Diamond Hill in this town.

    Neither state nor local police would admit having received tips indicating such a plot,... Read MORE...

  • 1949 - Testimony of Water Shortage in New England
    ...The old stone walls of farmlands flooded 62 years ago are visible in the top picture [illegible] of the Diamond Hill reservoir, Cumberland R.I., which also serves to show a typical example of the acute water shortage throughout the New England area...
    Fitchburg Sentinel
    Fitchburg, Massachusetts
    November 15, 1949
  • News  1950 - Monastery in Rhode Island Is Destroyed
    Cumberland Hill, R. I. (UP) - Fire early today destroyed the hilltop Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of the Valley, built by the patient hands of Trappist monks.

    The blaze apparently broke out in the infirmary of the massive granite structure, driving 110 monks and 20 guests from the four... Read MORE...

  • News  1955 - Industrial Blaze Ends 2,000 Jobs in Rhode Island
    CUMBERLAND, R.I., Sept. 13 - (INS) - Two thousand persons were left jobless today by a $5 million fire which destroyed five buildings of the Manville Mills on the banks of the Blackstone River.

    Firefighter James Bannon of Pawtucket was hospitalized for a fractured leg suffered when he fell while ... Read MORE...

  • News  1967 - It Was Good Ski Season For New England Resorts
    ...Rhode Island ski resorts survived abnormal warm weather in January to record a good season, with one exception. The January snow lack was balanced by good falls in other months plus many cold nights for the making of machine snow.

    Three of the four resort owners in Rhode Island listed 30... Read MORE...

  • News  1976 - Blast Destroys Aerosol Plant
    CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) - "When I got to the window, there was no wall left. It just blew me right through," said Norman Brule.

    Brule was one of at least 27 persons working in the Peterson-Puritan Aerosol spray plant when an explosion ripped through the building Saturday, tossing chunks of cement... Read MORE...

  • News  1976 - Century-old twins
    CUMBERLAND, R.I. (AP) - Emmanuel and Samuel Lussier's relatives are planning a centennial celebration of their own next year when the twin brothers reach a landmark birthday.

    Emmanuel and Samuel were born Aug. 11, 1877. They are believed to be the oldest male twins in New England.
    The Portsmouth Herald
    Portsmouth, New Hampshire
    November 11, 1976

  • "Discover Rhode Island" Premier - Episode 1: Lincoln-Cumberland, RI

Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA Genealogy

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